God never promised that life would be fair

Have you ever noticed that life isn't always fair? Of course you have. We all have.

In Ecclesiastes 7:15, the writer says: "I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people."

You've seen things like this before. The hard working employee gets overlooked and the lazy bum with seniority gets promoted. The healthy driver takes the handicap parking spot while the elderly lady has to park far from the store entrance. The crook goes free and an innocent man gets jailed for years. 

On and on this list could go. We all know that things like this happen all the time.

... and we get frustrated. We throw up our hands and say, "Why, Lord?" "Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful? (Job 21:7)."

Or as the prophet Jeremiah put it: "LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?" (Jeremiah 12:1)

Well, let me tie this up quickly with a few observations:

1) The propensity we have of getting frustrated with injustice simply points to the fact that God "has put eternity in our hearts" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27), we have a deep-rooted desire and expectation that righteousness will prevail and be rewarded. This knowledge of right and wrong and a craving to see right rewarded is a strong argument for the existence for a Law Giver in arguments for God's existence.

2) The key to understanding the book of Ecclesiastes and the frustration that the author wrote about is found in the phrase "under the sun." He discovered that life was utterly meaningless if we only looked at the hear-and-now - "under the sun." But, when we look OVER the sun and try to see things from God's eternal perspective, life begins to make a little more sense. The purpose of meaning of life begin to come into focus.

3) Right will not always be noticed or rewarded in this life and wrong will often prevail. But, we know that there is coming a day when Jesus will judge everyone of us in righteousness (Acts 17:31). That is when righteousness will ultimately be acknowledge and rewarded while wrongs will be exposed and punished.

So, will life be fair today? Not necessarily. But God is taking notice and will one day set things straight. Just live your life with the knowledge that one day you will stand before Him and give an account (Romans 14:12) of how you lived. If possibly, stand up for those who are being wronged. Be "salt" and "light" (Matthew 5:13-16) and stand against injustice. But, when things don't go well, rest assured that God is taking notice and will one day set things straight.